The virus immune to hand sanitizer disrupts holiday season

Norovirus has taken over the holiday season in US.

Cases of norovirus, the virulent illness that causes vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain — are surging and it can’t be killed by hand sanitizer alone.

As reported by Today, the levels of the virus are “high” in wastewater, which indicates that in the coming weeks, cases are expected to rise.

"It's a devilish virus because it can spread in so many ways, and it is so highly contagious," Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told the outlet.

Outbreaks frequently happen in dorms and on cruise ships and an AIDA Cruises ship is currently on a 133-day world tour with stops in the U.S., England, Mexico, Japan, South Africa is dealing with an ongoing outbreak of the virus that has sickened more than 100 passengers and crew members.

Although it’s sometimes called the stomach flu, norovirus isn’t caused by the influenza virus.

“You can get norovirus by accidentally getting tiny particles of feces (poop) or vomit in your mouth from a person infected with norovirus,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says.

They continued, “If you get norovirus illness, you can shed billions of norovirus particles that you can’t see without a microscope. It only takes a few norovirus particles to make you and other people sick.”

"It takes very few particles, between one and 10, to initiate an infection," Schaffner said. That’s why it also spreads so easily via food, when meals are prepared by an infected person who didn’t correctly wash their hands.

Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to avoid getting sick, as alcohol-based hand sanitizers aren’t effective against the virus, "You have to use soap and water, which literally picks up the virus and washes it down the drain," Schaffner mentioned.

The CDC’s guidance reiterates this by saying, “Hand sanitizer does not work well against norovirus. You can use hand sanitizers in addition to hand washing, but hand sanitizer is not a substitute for handwashing, which is best.”